#1; environmental semiotics chapter revised

Over the last four days I have completed what amounts to an article writing day, the first in the Autumn semester. In the process of taking part in revising the book chapter "Environmental Semiotics", which I co-write with Jonathan Beever, I added some 800 words to the manuscript (we also shortened the title). Moreover, I also composed five bullet points concerning practical implications related to the article "Friluftsliv in Therapeutic Residential Care: When Staff Take Youth Out to Find a Way In", which I co-write with Joakim Jiri Haaland and which has since been published (cf. separate post).

Joint abstract for 26th Gathering in Biosemiotics: "Ecosemiotics and Environmental Philosophy"

Jonathan Beever and I have just composed and submitted the abstract below to the organisers of the 26th Gathering in Biosemiotics, which will be held in Sheffield, UK, July July 27-31st.

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Ecosemiotics and Environmental Philosophy

This presentation examines ecosemiotics´ relation to environmental philosophy: how has it interwoven with other approaches, and how can it support the future of environmental philosophy? We argue that ecosemiotics’ fundamental relationality offers both strong parallels to and novel perspectives on environmental phenomenology, aesthetics, hermeneutics, and ethics, articulating how ecosemiotics can respond to contemporary debates in environmental philosophy. Ecosemiotics’ novel Peircean and Uexküllian representationalism acts as a thread running through environmental philosophical traditions. Researchers have advanced relational perspectives in environmental ethics deeply informed by ecosemiotics, like Beever and Tønnessen, who argue – for example – that accounts of intrinsic value in nature can be strengthened by appeals to biosemiotics accounts of life-worlds. Key figures in environmental philosophy have cited ecosemiotic figures directly, like Merleau-Ponty’s references to Uexküll that anticipate the emergence of ecophenomenology in environmental philosophy. Other contemporary figures have developed ecosemiotic positions in traditional environmental philosophical areas in order to offer novel and more robust articulations, like Tønnessen’s Uexküllian reading of phenomenology, that pursues Merleau-Ponty and the late Husserl along biosemiotic lines. In this presentation, we draw attention to these threads throughout enviornmental philosophy, and anticipate the possibility of a John Deely-esque project of weaving semiotic threads together in environmental philosophy to fundamentally reorient perceptions of the field and to resolve some old tensions (like around disputes on the metaphysics of deep ecology, concerns about deprioritizing human value, and under-evidenced claims about environmental capacities) with the introduction of an empirically-grounded science of signs and meaning-in-environments. Not only does such a project support ongoing research in environmental philosophy, it can furthermore reshape pedagogical approaches to the field, opening space for a re-telling of the history of environmental philosophy that is grounded in the study of signs. Our presentation will conclude with a foray into the possibility of semiosis of artificial agents and its implications for extensions in environmental philosophy beyond mere «natural» environments.

#54,5

Today I have had an article writing day with some 500 words added to the environmental semiotics chapter I am co-writing with Jonathan Beever, which we are finishing and submitting today. This brings the final accumulated number of writing days this Autumn (starting July 1st) up to #54,5, with a total of 22,5 of the writing days devoted to article writing, and 32 writing days devoted to book writing.

December totals: 6.152 words written

Autumn totals: 42.010 words written

Year totals: 98.777 words written (the most on record)

#53,5

Today I have had an article writing day with some 550 words added to the environmental semiotics chapter I am co-writing with Jonathan Beever. This brings the accumulated number of writing days this Autumn (starting July 1st) up to #53,5, with a total of 21,5 of the writing days devoted to article writing to date.

#51,5

Today I have had an article writing day with some 700 words added to the environmental semiotics chapter I am co-writing with Jonathan Beever. This brings the accumulated number of writing days this Autumn (starting July 1st) up to #51,5, with a total of 19,5 of the writing days devoted to article writing to date.

#50,5

Today I have had  a writing day, consisting of half an article writing day, with some 400 words added to the environmental semiotics chapter I am co-writing with Jonathan Beever, and half a book writing day, with some 150 words added to my scientific monograph in spe Being and Sign. This brings the accumulated number of writing days this Autumn (starting July 1st) up to #50,5, with a total of 18,5 of the writing days devoted to article writing, and 32 writing days devoted to bok writing, to date.

#49,5

Today I have had half an article writing day, with some 300 words added to the environmental semiotics chapter I am co-writing with Jonathan Beever. This was writing day #49,5 this Autumn (starting July 1st), with a total of 18 of the writing days devoted to article writing to date. 

#49

Today I have had an article writing day, with some 600 words added to the environmental semiotics chapter I am co-writing with Jonathan Beever. This was writing day #49 this Autumn (starting July 1st), with a total of 17,5 of the writing days devoted to article writing to date. 

#48

Today I have had what (following geopolitical intrigues involving the state of Florida) ended up with half an article writing day, with some 600 words added to the environmental semiotics chapter I am co-writing with Jonathan Beever. This was writing day #48 this Autumn (starting July 1st), with a total of 16,5 of the writing days devoted to article writing to date.

#47,5

Today I have had an article writing day, with some 700 words added to the environmental semiotics chapter I am co-writing with Jonathan Beever. This was writing day #47,5 this Autumn (starting July 1st), with a total of 16 of the writing days devoted to article writing to date.

#46,5

Today I have had an article writing day, with some 100 words added to Store Norske Leksikon articles via suggested edits. This included edits in the encyclopedia entries "ulvejakt" (wolf hunting), "sansene", "primær egenskap", "lisensfelling", "jakt", "rovviltforvaltning", "ulv - pelsverk" and "ulv i folketro og symbolikk", and two suggested images for the "ulvejakt" entry.

Moreover, I added some 300 words the environmental semiotics chapter I am co-writing with Jonathan Beever.

This was writing day #46,5 this Autumn (starting July 1st), with a total of 15 of the writing days devoted to article writing to date.

#43,5

Today I have had an article writing day, with some 100 words added to the chapter on environmental semiotics which I co-write with Jonathan Beever. I also proof-read my forthcoming chapter "Steffens´ early outlook reconsidered. Nature conceptions of the industrial-age Anthropocene", volunteered to write a book review for Biosemiotics, and considered a call for papers on the history of climate economics from the journal Œconomia – History | Methodology | Philosophy.

This was writing day #43,5 this Autumn (starting July 1st), with a total of 12,5 of the writing days devoted to article writing to date. According to current plans, this concludes my writing days in November, with a paltry 3 writing days altogether, and 654 words written.

#41

Today I have had what ended up as half an article writing day, with planning and outline work done in relation to a philosophy handbook chapter I am co-writing with Jonathan Beever on environmental semiotics in the context of environmental philosophy. This was writing day #41 this Autumn (starting July 1st), with a total of 11,5 of the writing days devoted to article writing to date.

#30

Today I have had half an article writing day, with some 100 words added to the chapter "Environmental semiotics", which I co-write with Jonathan Beever for Springer´s Handbook of environmental philosophy.  This was writing day #30 this Autumn (starting July 1st), with 2 days devoted to article writing days so far.

To co-write Handbook of environmental philosophy chapter on environmental semiotics

I have agreed to co-write a chapter for Springer´s forthcoming Handbook of Environmental Philosophy along with Jonathan Beever. 

Preliminary reference:

 — in process, with Jonathan Beever: Environmental semiotics. In: Nathan Kowalsky and Richard Kover (eds.), Handbook of Environmental Philosophy (Handbooks in Philosophy), Section II: Main Theoretical Currents. Springer Nature.

Google Scholar: h-index 20, i10-index 37; 1220 citations

According to Google Scholar (cf. my profile), my research has to date attracted 1220 citations (+17 since September 26th). My h-index is now 20 (+1 since September 26th), and my i10-index is 37 (+1 since September 26th). This includes 151 citations so far in 2024 (+14 since September 26th). 

With these numbers, 2024 to date is now my 3rd best year in terms of number of citations, surpassing 2021 (148) yet still behind 2022 (186) and 2023 (174).

An h-index of 20 means that 20 of my scientific texts have been cited 20 times each or more. The latest one to make it is "Introducing zoosemiotics: Philosophy and historical background" (2016), written by Timo Maran, Morten Tønnessen, Riin Magnus, Nelly Mäekivi, Silver Rattasepp and Kadri Tüür, which has been cited 6 times so far this year and 21 times altogether.

An i10-index of 37 means that 37 of my scientific texts have been cited 10 times each or more. The latest to make it is "Introducing biosemiotic ethics" (2015), written by Morten Tønnessen, Jonathan Beever and Yogi Hale Hendlin, which has been cited 3 times this year and 10 times altogether.

Special issue on biosemiotic ethics freely available online

Our special issue of Zeitschrift für Semiotik on biosemiotic ethics is now freely available online, downloadable in PDF format.

Brief presentation:

This issue presents the rapidly growing field of biosemiotic ethics. In the past two decades, biosemioticians have began to tease out the ethical implications of biosemiotics. The foundational argument is that if semiosis is a morally-relevant capacity, and if all living systems are semiotic, then biosemiosis can serve as the basis for justifying the attribution of moral status to humans, to animals and plants, and even to ecosystems. Biosemiotic ethics opens the road towards a perspective that connects ecological thinking with ethical perspectives.

All articles are licensed under the CC-BY 4.0 International license.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14464/zsem.v37i3-4

I contribute as an author to these texts:
Introducing biosemiotic ethics
Justifying moral standing by biosemiotic particularism
Interview on biosemiotic ethics with Wendy Wheeler
A world of signs (in memory of John Deely)

Table of contents of special issue on biosemiotic ethics

The table of contents of our special issue on biosemiotic ethics of Zeitschrift für Semiotik is now available online, via Academia.edu. Coming soon.

Special issue on biosemiotic ethics fully edited, revised

After further editorial work, we have finally sent off edited revisions of all articles for our special issue on biosemiotic ethics, appearing in Zeitschrift for Semiotik this Spring.

Obituary for John Deely

I have written an obituary for my dear colleague and friend John Deely, who passed  January 6th. The obituary, co-written with Yogi Hale Hendlin and Jonathan Beever, is titled "A world of signs: in memory of John Deely (1942–2017)" and will appear in Zeitschrift für Semiotik´s special issue on biosemiotic ethics, to which John contributed.